Is Kraven The Hunter Going To Be In The MCU?

One of the fan-favorite Marvel comics characters still waiting for a film version is Kraven the Hunter, one of the notorious adversaries of Spider-Man. Finally, after tons of rumors for previous films, Kraven the Hunter will appear in a stand-alone, anti-hero flick in early 2023, called Kraven the Hunter. So, is Kraven the Hunter going to be in the MCU?

Currently, there is no evidence pointing towards Kraven the Hunter being a part of the MCU. Instead, Sergei Kravinoff is joining the Sony Spider-Man universe, that’ll already have Venom and Morbius as titular anti-heroes with their respective films in the franchise.

However, seeing that Eddie Brock appeared in the post-credit scene of MCU’s Spider-Man: No Way Home after Peter Parker and Doctor Strange opened up the multiverse, one can’t exclude Kraven from eventually entering the main MCU. In fact, none of the Sony Marvel characters can be excluded. Without further ado, here’s everything we know about the upcoming Kraven flick.

Who Is Kraven The Hunter?

For those who enjoy Marvel heroes and villains on-screen but aren’t that familiar with the comics, I’ll briefly recap who Kraven the Hunter is and why fans await his big-screen introduction so eagerly.

Sergei Nikolaievich Kravinoff is a Russian immigrant born and raised in Volgograd, Russia, during the Russian Revolution. He has a brother, Chameleon, who is one of the first Spider-Man adversaries from the comics, soon to be joined by Kraven.

Sergei became a hunter, quickly developing the affinity to kill large animals with his bare hands. Calypso, a Voodoo witch doctor, gave Kraven a potion that prolonged his life, gave him enhanced strength, speed, agility, and stamina, matching those of a ferocious jungle cat.

With time, Kraven became obsessed with proving he’s the world’s greatest hunter, so he set out to hunt down the toughest prey he could find on the planet – Spidey himself. That led to numerous conflicts between the two. Interestingly, both Chameleon and Calypso are announced to appear in the 2023 Kraven the Hunter film.

Is Kraven The Hunter Movie Going To Be A Part Of The MCU?

As things stand right now, Kraven the Hunter movie won’t be a part of the MCU, but rather Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, where Venom and Morbius appeared in solo movies before him. That doesn’t mean Kraven won’t be introduced into the MCU sometime later, but let’s first dissect what we know about the announced Sony Marvel flick.

Kraven the Hunter is announced for January 13, 2023. J.C. Chandor will take the reigns as the film director, while the trio of writers includes Matt Holloway, Art Marcum, and Richard Wenk. 

While the plot details haven’t been disclosed yet, it’s believed that it will be loosely based on the comic book storyline Kraven’s Last Hunt, where he takes down Spidey. The logline for the film on IMDb says: “Russian immigrant Sergei Kravinoff is on a mission to prove that he is the greatest hunter in the world.”

We know that Aaron Taylor-Johnson will portray the titular character Kraven since March 2021. We’ve already seen Aaron in the MCU as Pietro Maximoff, aka Quicksilver, but his role in Avengers: Age of Ultron was short-lived.

However, other cast members for Kraven the Hunter are slowly but surely getting confirmed to participate in the film. Fred Hechinger will portray Chameleon, Kraven’s brother, while Ariana DeBose plays Calypso, the Voodoo witch doctor who gave Kraven enhanced powers in the comics.

Additionally, The Hollywood Reporter just recently confirmed Russell Crowe was joining the cast in an undisclosed role. It will be interesting to see since Crowe is already announced to play Zeus in the MCU in the upcoming Taika Waititi film Thor: Love and Thunder.

The most recent addition to the cast is Alessandro Nivola – according to Deadline, he’ll play the main antagonist in the film, although his name and role in the plot haven’t been revealed yet.

To conclude – if something doesn’t change dramatically in the next few months, Kraven the Hunter will be a film outside of the MCU. It’ll be a Sony’s Spider-Man Universe movie, just like the two Venom films, and the upcoming Morbius starring Jared Leto as the Living Vampire.

Be that as it may, that doesn’t mean Kraven could never appear in the MCU. The multiverse has been opened after Spider-Man: No Way Home – which, by the way, was the film where Kraven was first suggested to appear if the whole multiverse thing didn’t pass. It did, so Kraven got shelved again.

However, in the post-credit scene of No Way Home, we’ve seen Eddie Brock and Venom briefly appearing in the MCU, which clearly suggests that crossovers between the Sony Marvel Universe and the MCU are quite possible in the future.

How Could Kraven The Hunter Fit Into The MCU?

For the sake of argument, let’s say that Kraven the Hunter ends up crossing over or appearing otherwise within the MCU. How and where would the character fit?

Well, Kraven has a rich history in the comics, as he appeared as a foe to many famous superheroes. For instance, Ryan Coogler planned to introduce Kraven the Hunter to the MCU in 2018’s Black Panther, but the idea was shut down.

Also, he was supposed to appear in No Way Home, but then Garfield, Maguire, and others agreed to the whole epic multiverse plot, so that plan was botched too. 

Nevertheless, I believe that if Kraven ever ought to appear in the MCU, it should be in connection to Spider-Man, as it is in the comics. He’s a highly-popular Spider-Man villain, so the fans would certainly enjoy Kraven’s MCU introduction. That being said, we don’t know what Spidey’s future in the MCU will be.

Tom Holland suggested that he’d like to return as Peter Parker, but only in the role of a mentor to Miles Morales or some other, more diverse Spidey. So, a clash with Kraven doesn’t seem likely at this point – but maybe Miles could take that role instead of Peter.

It only opens up more possibilities for Kraven the Hunter to jump into the MCU through the multiverse or even as a variant from the MCU. In the end, we won’t know until we know. Personally, I’d love to see all the Sony Spider-Man Universe anti-heroes get into the main MCU in the future, including Venom, Morbius, and Kraven.

As things stand right now, it won’t happen any time soon, but one thing is certain – Kraven the Hunter would fit into any future MCU Spidey storyline like a glove.